William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and

Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s

Sonezaki Shinju

A Comparative Literature Study on Tragic Love Stories

Introduction

• Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet, a drama by William

Shakespeare, is about a tragic love story of a young man Romeo and a young woman Juliet. The conflict between the two families, Montague-from Romeo’s side and Capulet-from Juliet’s side becomes an obstacle to their unconditional love. When Romeo has to leave Juliet because of the conflict, Juliet is forced to marry a distinctive man her family had agreed, Paris.

Juliet, who does not want to marry Paris, sets up a plan with the help of a preacher, Father Lorenzo. The plan is to make Juliet seemingly dies of poison, but after two days she will wake up again. All of this is to stop the marriage between her and Paris so that later Romeo can take her outside the town. Unfortunately, the news that comes to Romeo’s ear is the death of his lover, not the plan.

Thus, when he arrives and sees Juliet lying dead, he is very sad and angry so that he kills Paris in the duel. Feeling extremely sad and empty, he takes a deadly poison and dies. Juliet, finally awakes from her “death”, seeing her Romeo died, takes a dagger and kills herself. The family of the two lovers realizes their huge mistakes finally regrets it and be at peace with each others.

• Sonezaki Shinju Sonezaki Shinju, a Japanese drama by

Chikamatsu Monzaemon, is a tragic love story of Tokubei and Ohatsu. Tokubei is a worker in his uncle’s shop and Ohatsu is a hostess in the shop. They meet in a temple and fall in love with each other. Their relationship is not as easy as their meeting. Tokubei’s uncle who is also his master plans to match Tokubei with his niece.

His uncle says that he will be responsible for the cost of the marriage. But Tokubei, who really loves Ohatsu, refuses his uncle’s offer. Then his uncle becomes very angry at Tokubei. He asks Tokubei to return the money he gave him as long he lives. Tokubei is very poor, but he can collect all the money with his hard efforts motivated by his love to Ohatsu.

Once it is enough to pay his debts to his uncle, he is cheated by his best friend, Kuheiji. He borrows Tokubei’s money with no intention to return it. Tokubei is also tortured by Kuheiji’s friends. Knowing that it is impossible to pay his debts to his uncle, Tokubei tells all of the problems to his lover. The loving couples finally make their last decision to do shinju, that is to end their life and have their marriage afterlife. They put their best effort to go to Sonezaki Forest where they end their life hoping that they can be married in the hereafter according to the belief of Buddha Zen.

Similarities

• The theme: – Love story in a difficult time

– Love and faithfulness are more important than life.

• The conflict: Family is the biggest obstacle of their love

• The ending: They are both ended by the death of the main characters

Differences

• The conflict in the family is triggered by the social status in Romeo and Juliet. Meanwhile, the conflict in Sonezaki Shinju is based on the feeling of trust of the uncle toward his nephew which is broken with the refusal of the nephew.

• The meaning of death in Romeo and Juliet is different from the suicide (shinju) done by Tokubei and Ohatsu.

• The setting

Conclusion

The true love story is described in two different place and time. However, they both have similar theme, conflict, and ending in such a way that Sonezaki Shinju can be said as another version of Romeo and Juliet. Nevertheless, the differences between those two masterpieces as seen from socio-cultural approach are the most important aspects to be considered. Finally, it depends on our understanding and appreciation to interpret those literary works.

Thank You

Presented and created by Hilga Clararissa AS